Cox Communications to offer HD NFL Network in Oklahoma

Published: Friday, November 02, 2007

MURRAY EVANSASSOCIATED PRESS

OKLAHOMA CITY- Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones visited Oklahoma on Thursday to promote an announcement by Cox Communications that it would begin carrying the NFL Network in high-definition for customers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa on Nov. 20.

The NFL Network still will not be part of Cox's basic cable package in Oklahoma, where the cable company now carries the network as part of its sports and information tier. But Cox Oklahoma President Dave Bialis said there will not be an extra charge for Cox's digital cable customers to receive the network in high-definition.

Bialis noted the change comes before the live broadcast of eight NFL games on the network, including two involving the Cowboys - against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 29 and the Carolina Panthers on Dec. 22.

Jones

Cox began carrying the NFL Network in 2004.

Jones, the chairman of the NFL Network ownership committee, said the network is "working with affiliated partners to prove the strong value NFL Network brings to a cable lineup and how life is better when you carry the channel."

The NFL Network is in about 35 million homes nationwide, a figure well behind what league officials had thought it would be by this point in the network's existence. One problem is that some of the nation's largest cable companies have refused to carry the network on their basic tier, as the NFL desires.

Jones said last week that the Cowboys had "been getting calls and mail from folks in our area already. Places in Oklahoma and West Texas that aren't in our direct market but are full of our fans want to know why they won't be able to see that (Packers) game."

He acknowledged Thursday that areas remain where fans of the Cowboys, and other NFL teams, don't get to watch the team "because the main cable carriers aren't with the NFL Network." He said he believes free-market forces eventually will convince previously reluctant cable companies that they need to offer the NFL Network.

"When enough people go to the competition that can carry it," Jones said, referring to satellite companies and phone companies, "then that's the way it is in America. People respond to competition."

Jones said Thursday it is in the best interest of the Cowboys "to have the most people watching our games and watching any information that they can get on the network about football" and said the NFL Network has "great promise."